while all this is true, I'm with the posters who have correctly stated that our inability to control a game and possess the ball is the first and foremost problem.

We are losing the ball in bad situations because our passing is so bad putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on our defence. We definitely need more pace at the back to progress to where our ultimate goals might be but in all honesty when Rooney or Gana or Schneids lays a poorly weighted or off target pass, it gets intercepted in an unexpected area which confounds game reading defenders like Jags or Williams, leaving them on the wrong foot or in the wrong area to compensate. Don't know how we could possibly complete the window without some effort made to address this.

Logged

Nil Satis

Likes...

So thought I'd post this one, I had a look at centre back pairings. Stats are from whoscored, only centre back league starts are included, some games were tougher than others, too few games to draw conclusions on some partnerships, goals scored is not that relevant etc. Holgate played right back in some games and I've probably cocked something up.

Things of interest:-

5 out of 7 of our wins have come from Holgate/Williams at centre back, with 2 draws and no losses, conceding only 4. We've conceded 35 goals and taken only 11 points from the other 17 games.

Jagielka and Williams have only played together once, given that Holgate had not featured much as centre back until this season, that's not a lot of familiarity or experience of playing together. It's largely 2 distinct new partnerships, Jagielka and Holgate have played together once, and surprised by Jags poor ratings.

We played Holgate and Williams together for 5 matches in a row, won 4, drew 1, including our last win. Allardyce rotated for the next 5 games and only switched back last match.

Holgate Williams has deffo been out best pairing but the fact is we need to plan for the future which is Holgate Keane, unless Keane is getting bombed out end of season.

Let Keane sit deep and let Holgate be the front foot defender.

We could do with a physically capable CB because were quite slow now jags has aged.

We could do with developing Keane and Holgate into comfortable passers.

LB/RB massive issue. Kenny is great and nowhere near good enough. Martina awful. Gone from best fullbacks in the league to worst within 2-3 years.

Missing the pace, dribbling and vertical passing of both in build up and also Colemanís goals at the sharp end.

Midfield is a mess.

Logged

I knew that someday I was going to die, and I knew that before I died, two things would happen to me. That number one; I would regret my entire life, and number two; that I would want to live my life over again.

Yes new defence needed. I think Holgate would be the only survivor of this current back four if the fans were in charge of the cheque book. Kenny has potential, true, but he's not playing very well at the moment as it's too soon for him.

People say we have talent in the squad, and it's true we do, but only in certain positions. CBs are either really old or inexperienced, LB has no left foot, RB is inexperienced, we've only just bought a proper striker and DMs are vastly underperforming and have been all season.

This is too many positions of poor quality to carry, so until most of them are addressed we're gonna continue to be a bit shit.

In my opinion, you can't have poor quality in both DM and fullback area or attacks can't be started properly without a long ball.

if you look at the 3 teams units within our team in isolation ie: defence - midfield - attack....

we have problems all over the team....all three areas need strengthening in one way or another....OR

working on and gelling together, first as units then a team bringing them together........

In each unit I believe at this precise moment in time.....we are only 1 player away from each unit becoming a solid unit defence = 1 solid experienced centre half....midfield = 1 ball playing controlling midfielder..attack = a target man goalscorer

and for me the key to knitting the jigsaw together is the midfielder.....

if you look at the 3 teams units within our team in isolation ie: defence - midfield - attack....

we have problems all over the team....all three areas need strengthening in one way or another....OR

working on and gelling together, first as units then a team bringing them together........

In each unit I believe at this precise moment in time.....we are only 1 player away from each unit becoming a solid unit defence = 1 solid experienced centre half....midfield = 1 ball playing controlling midfielder..attack = a target man goalscorer

and for me the key to knitting the jigsaw together is the midfielder.....

According to the Echo Garbutt has been highly recommended by Rhino and is expected to be added to our new squad list "next month" which I take to mean 1st February. Good news if he gets in for the Arsenal game and when Baines gets back we have two for that position.

According to the Echo Garbutt has been highly recommended by Rhino and is expected to be added to our new squad list "next month" which I take to mean 1st February. Good news if he gets in for the Arsenal game and when Baines gets back we have two for that position.

Players can be registered at any time in the transfer window, so there would be no reason to wait if anyone thought he was any good.

Players can be registered at any time in the transfer window, so there would be no reason to wait if anyone thought he was any good.

Wrong according to the Echo. A new squad list has to be submitted to the PL after the window closes, hence February. Of course the Echo is a shite paper so maybe they even got this wrong. We shall see.